Cindy and I went on the NCL cruise a few years ago. It had lots of bad reviews because it was a new boat and had an all American crew but was not really that bad for service. I liked it because we flew directly to Honalulu and then did the 7 day cruise. Only other choice is to take the 14 day cruises out of LA, generally for a lot more money and a lot of wasted days at sea. One disadvantage of the NCL cruise is that since they don't leave American waters there is no casino on board (BUMMER!). They have the freestyle dining which means no assigned seating. If you want to sit by yourselves tonite you get to do it . It you want company then you can do that also. Also freer seating times. We also avoided all of the cruise supplied tours and rented a car at each port. Worked out very well for us - we saw what the tours would have showed us (for way less than half the cost) and then we got to drive around and see other things. That also allows you to choose what restaurant to eat in during the day. The food onboard was good enough that we never paid extra to eat in the upscale restaurants. You can check vacationstogo.com to get all of the sale prices on cruises within the next 90 days. It is a great website. Let me know if you have any other questions.